Do you want a highly engaged audience? Of course you do! But be warned – overusing animation in your slide deck is not the way to accomplish your goal. Flying words and bursting stars may seem interesting, but are more of a hindrance than a help. With slide decks, a little can go a long way. So here are my personal guidelines for when to animate and when not to animate.

DO NOT

Add more than three different types of animation in a single slide deck. Choose one or two (three if you must) and use them consistently throughout

Use more than one style of animation on a single slide. Less is more!

Add animation to slide decks that will be used in live webinars. Weak connectivity can cause them to distort. Instead of looking sharp and professional, they look sluggish and distracting.

Use fast transitions. Early adopters of Prezi made their audiences motion sick with all of the quick movement from one image to another.

DO

Add subtle animation to build your points. Appear, Moving In and Fade effects are all acceptable when you are layering several ideas on one slide.

Add subtle transitions between slides, but keep them consistent throughout the entire deck. Fade works well here. If you want something with a bit more pizazz, try the Cube effect, with a 1.5 second transition and no bounce. Anything faster will leave your audience feeling nauseous. .

Design presentations that keep your audience engaged in meaningful ways. Here are two simple ways to do this. Inspiration and Longhand